2023-05-13 22:20:00
On April 29, the Toronto Maple Leafs thought they were finally there. They thought they had removed the pressure that had weighed heavily on their shoulders for years. By disposing of the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games, Toronto finally put an end to its 19-year drought without reaching the second round of playoffs.
The Maple Leafs could finally dream of their wildest goals. With a core that finally seemed to be establishing itself and meeting expectations, nothing seemed too good for the Maple Leafs. But now two weeks later, the situation is practically the same as for the last five seasons, since the formation of their core with four offensive stars.
The Maple Leafs won just one small game against the Florida Panthers in their long-awaited second-round comeback of the playoffs.
John Tavares, William Nylander, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner once again stepped aside when the team needed them most.
Kyle Dubas has still not found the winning formula to build a team that can offer a first Stanley Cup in Toronto since 1967.
The Maple Leafs still haven’t found a stable solution in net.
And ultimately, Sheldon Keefe wasn’t able to maximize all the potential he had at his fingertips, yet again.
What to do with the kernel?
The hourglass will continue to flow for this core, which may well come to a crossroads. Matthews and Nylander will become unrestricted free agents at the end of the next campaign, while Tavares and Marner will become free agents the following season.
It’s decision time for the leaders of the Maple Leafs, if they want to attack the future with greater ambitions than what the current core of the team has managed to offer the Leafs.
In the short term, the stars of the team want to give themselves a chance, again, to show that they can succeed where hopes seem to have flown away.
“We are all still under contract. It’s beyond our control, but I really believe in this group. It hurts right now, but you have to believe it,” Marner explained Friday night, after a bitter overtime loss against the Panthers.
And it is true that the management of the team is beyond their control. Uncertainty has been hanging over Matthews’ return at the end of his contract for some time now and Nylander is spending the last season on a more than affordable contract, considering his offensive production which has only increased over the past few years.
We could therefore witness a gradual dissolution of the core of the Leafs over the next few months.
For the upcoming campaign, the Maple Leafs have just $8.3 million of space under the payroll and only 17 players are under contract. Within the top-9 on offense, the team will have to make important decisions on the potential returns of Ryan O’Reilly and Michael Bunting. The latter will certainly ask for a significant salary increase, he who has pocketed only $ 950,000 over the past two seasons.
If Toronto wants to keep its four stars, the incumbent general manager will once again have to find golden nuggets that will offer an attractive return, while having affordable contracts. Otherwise, one of the big contracts may have to be traded to reshuffle the salary structure. Matthews, Tavares, Marner and Nylander hold 49% of the Leafs’ payroll alone.
Has Dubas run out of his last chance?
But before making any big decisions on whether to keep or destroy the core, the Maple Leafs will need to decide who they will trust for the GM job. Kyle Dubas has seemed on the ejection seat for a while now and his five-year contract, signed in 2018, ends this year. Dubas is therefore without a contract, for the moment, for the next campaign.
Will the Leafs be tempted to entrust him with managing the team for the future? We have to admit that Dubas has done what is necessary to give the Leafs all the tools necessary for the success of the playoffs this season.
The 37-year-old added O’Reilly, Noel Acciari and Sam Lafferty to the Toronto offense before the trade deadline, in addition to improving the team’s depth on the blue line with the additions of Jake McCabe , Erik Gustafsson and Luke Schenn.
His biggest bet, which he made this summer with a trade to hand Matt Murray the Maple Leafs cage, didn’t have the desired effect, however, as the masked man was limited to 26 games in due to some injuries.
Will Dubas still be the team’s general manager in a few months?
A situation to settle in front of the net
The other big file to settle will certainly be in front of the net. Since the end of the 2021-2022 season, Toronto seems unable to find a minimum of stability in front of the net.
In the 2020-21 season, Frederik Andersen lost his No. 1 goalie position to Jack Campbell, and Andersen left the Leafs to join the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Leafs thought they had found a No. 1 goaltender in Campbell, but he struggled in the second half of the season after a strong start to the campaign. Result? For the second straight season, the Leafs released a goaltender to the free agent market and Campbell got a raise with the Edmonton Oilers.
Finally last summer, in addition to turning to Murray with the hope that he could relaunch his career, the Maple Leafs signed Ilya Samsonov to a one-year contract to complete the goaltending tandem.
The Russian has had a strong showing this season, but struggled more in the playoffs with a 3.13 goals-against-average and .898 save percentage. After his injury, young Joseph Woll took over to end the series against the Panthers.
What will the Maple Leafs do in the goaltending situation? Murray is still under contract at a salary of $4.6 million and Samsonov is a restricted free agent.
The Leafs’ options therefore seem to be as follows: offer a second chance to the Murray-Samsonov duo, find a quality number 1 goalkeeper via the transaction market or even promote Woll and allow him to occupy one of the two goalkeeper positions. Maple Leafs next season.
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